Query Azure Devops

Query Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps is not reachable via WebFetch or generic MCP servers. The correct path is the Azure CLI with the azure-devops extension.

Tech-Path Discovery (run in order, stop at the first success)

1. WebFetch dev.azure.com/*              -> ALWAYS FAILS (redirects to MSFT login)
2. ToolSearch "azure devops mcp"         -> MISS - azure MCP covers infrastructure
                                            (Storage, Key Vault, Cosmos DB), not DevOps
3. Atlassian MCP                         -> MISS - surfaces Confluence only, no ADO
4. az account show                       -> PASS if Azure CLI is authenticated
5. az extension list | grep azure-devops -> PASS if the extension is installed

If step 4 or 5 fails, tell the user to run:

az login
az extension add --name azure-devops

Query Work Items (WIQL)

az boards query \
  --wiql "SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title], [System.WorkItemType], [System.State], \
          [System.AssignedTo], [System.CreatedDate], [System.ChangedDate] \
          FROM WorkItems \
          WHERE [System.AssignedTo] = '' \
            AND [System.ChangedDate] >= '' \
            AND [System.ChangedDate] ' \
          ORDER BY [System.ChangedDate] DESC" \
  --organization https://dev.azure.com/ \
  --project  \
  --output json

Useful WIQL fields: [System.WorkItemType], [System.State], [System.Tags], [System.IterationPath], [Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedDate].

Post-processing — remove false positives: System.ChangedDate fires on any field edit, including bulk admin operations, iteration moves, and comments. This can pull in old items that were merely touched rather than actively worked on. After fetching, discard any item where all three of these are true:

1. System.CreatedDate is more than ~1 year before the period start
2. State is terminal (Closed, Resolved, Removed, Pending Approval, Pending Prod Deployment)
3. The title or context doesn't suggest it was genuinely completed this period

Use --output json (not --output table) so System.CreatedDate is visible for this check.

Query Pull Requests

# PRs authored by a user
az repos pr list \
  --creator "" \
  --organization https://dev.azure.com/ \
  --project  \
  --status all \
  --top 50 \
  --output table

# PRs where a user was added as reviewer
az repos pr list \
  --reviewer "" \
  --organization https://dev.azure.com/ \
  --project  \
  --status all \
  --top 50 \
  --output table

Note: --reviewer matches both individual reviewers and team reviewers whose membership includes the user. Filter by Created date after the fact to scope a date range.

Rules

• Verify az account show before running any az boards or az repos call.
• The azure MCP server (@azure/mcp) is for Azure infrastructure — do not search for

Azure DevOps tools there; they do not exist in that server.

• GitHub PRs (repos hosted on github.com, not dev.azure.com) require a separate tool

(gh CLI or GitHub MCP). If neither is available, search Slack for PR links.

• When a project is unknown, run az devops project list --organization to enumerate.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: justinmchoi
• Source: justinmchoi/ai-toolkit
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.